Moscow Sees No Georgia Effort On Relations

Vyacheslav Kovalenko was speaking to reporters after presenting his credentials to President Mikheil Saakashvili today.

He also said that recent Georgian reports about uranium smuggling by a Russian national were based on "distorted information."

"We have recently seen deliberately distorted information with an openly anti-Russian subtext about uranium allegedly smuggled from Russia [into Georgia]," Kovalenko said. "I consider such attacks on Russia unacceptable and, of course, this does not help in creating conditions for resolving pressing issues in Russian-Georgian relations."

Kovalenko returned to Tbilisi last week, four months after he was recalled by Moscow amid a spying row.

(Reuters, ITAR-TASS)